Dolphin Head Forest Reserve
Jamaica
Dolphin Head Forest Reserve is approximately 1167 hectares, covering six forest estates in the north-western part of Jamaica.
The Queen’s Baton Relay took part in activities across Jamaica on the third full day of activities on the island. This QueenÕs Baton Relay will visit all 70 nations and territories of the Commonwealth, over 388 days and cover 230,000km. It will be the longest Relay in Commonwealth Games history, finishing at the Opening Ceremony on the Gold Coast on 4th April 2018. Photograph shows a young girl with the Baton at the Dolphin Head Forest Reserve during a ceremony to mark the reserve’s inclusion as part of the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy.
Historically, the Reserve was part of lands owned by slave masters and the slaves were used to cut the roads through the mountains and to rear cattle and other livestock on the land. Commencing in 1950, the Government started to declare various parcels of land as forest reserves to ensure the conservation of the forest resources in these areas.
The Dolphin Head mountain range is recorded to have a higher density of local endemic plant species and rare or threatened plants per unit area than anywhere else in Jamaica. The effective mitigation of threats and conservation of the biodiversity of this ecologically fragile ecosystem remain a priority in Jamaica.
In April 2009 the Forestry Department launched the Dolphin Head Local Forest Management Committee (LFMC), which effectively became the community group that works with the Agency to establish and develop conservation based activities to support sustainable forest management.
Since the LFMC’s establishment, it has secured grant funding to reforest sixteen hectares of denuded and degraded forest lands and has also established an apiary in the area, which serves as a thriving honey business for its members.
